Mermaid House

This piece was commissioned by Housing Vermont in conjunction with architect Michael Wisniewski. To help tie the building to the site’s history and tradition, the sculpture includes physical features of the location’s past incarnation. For example, the hat worn by the mermaid is from an 1812 soldier’s uniform. More recently, there was a Shell gas station at this location, hence the scallop shell at the end of her tail. Her hair is made of jumping perch from Lake Champlain. The sculpture serves as a traditional architectural bracket, as well as a supporting figurehead for this building shaped like a ship.